|
The plan
This project is designed to fill the role of systems like DBA and give me an excuse to prepare some armies for the table and play with them without having to commit to a huge number of miniatures for each and the time and expense that would entail. I am planning to produce about four (maybe more) armies to play Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames. These armies consist of six elements drawn from a pool of ten so I shall be assembling and painting all ten options (and some extras, more on those later). These units will also be suitable to use with Irregular Wars, another set of rules I'd like to try out. The setting
I've picked the rennaissance as the period that allows me to produce armies that I've always wanted but haven't had the time or inclination to invest in large forces. I'm starting with a landsknecht army and then I hope to make a Conquistador army, an Elizabethan sea dog army, an Aztec army and a Border Reivers army. Maybe others if the inspiration arrives. The Landsknechts
I'm starting with the pikes. these are all metal miniatures from Artizan designs. I'm painting them in two batches of 18 with three colour schemes per batch. Once all four units are complete, I'll mix up the colours as I base them. 
The final infantry options are two units of swordsmen. These are also from Artizan.
The extras:
I decided, in the end, that my original thought to have an artillery option for the Landsknechts (taken instead of Reiters) was worth doing. I particularly like Landsknecht guns and crews and didn't want to leave them out. I also found out that I will need a leader if I'm to play the Irregular Wars rules. I like having leaders on my battlefirelds, even if they don't do anything, so I've added some. There is a chance, once we've played the rules a few times, that we might include rules for them silmilar to those we introduced to my Crimea games (also written by Neil Thomas). Artillery
These two guns and crew are from Foundry.
The completed army.
Some photos from the first two games I played with my long-term opponent Mark. We played the first two scenarios from the rules. Each was completed in under an hour with the Landsknechts winning the first and the Elizabethans winning the second.
The rules are simple to learn and give a satisfying game. Success! 
|
The Landsknecht Army
Each army for One Hour Wargames has six units randomly decided from a pool of ten. 
For my Landsknechts, I am making 4 foot units, 2 Reiter units, 2 Swordsmen units and 2 cavalry units. As you can see from the table above, these are the maximum i will need, regardless of the dice roll. The choice of unit types is restricted to the four above by the rules.
When finished the army will look like this: 
Arquebusiers. These will combine with each pike base to form a single foot unit. These are metal miniatures from Artizan Designs.
This was the plan for basing the foot units. Ultimately i could only fit six pikes, not eight, to a base.
The 'shot' elements in a foot unit can run out of ammunition. When this happens I will remove the arquebus stands rather than add an 'out of ammo' counter to the tabletop. If I just want to field an arquebus element, I can combine the two small bases into a larger unit. 
Here the shot are combined into their own units.
And here they are as wings for the pikes, forming a single unit.
Now for the cavalry. Two units of mounted crossbowmen and two units of gendarmes. These are from Casting Room Miniatures.
Scenery
I have an italian tower keep originally made by ian Weekley and now available from Magister Militum. To addto this I bought some medieval tents from the same source. These will add yet more colour to the Landsknecht army on the tabletop.
|
|
2023 Expanding the army
The Landsknechts are getting six new units to bring them up to eighteen. I'm making another three infantry units and another three gendarme units. This time all the infantry figures are from Foundry. I'm also adding a couple of morale bases of looters from Warlord Games. The flags are from First Corps. 
The Gendarmes.
The looters.
|
|
|
|